WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. -- As Purdue women's soccer opens Big Ten Conference play against No. 24 Wisconsin for the fourth time in the last seven years, the Boilermakers will look to continue their winning ways at home against the league's premier road team this season.

Kickoff is set for 1 p.m. at the Boilermaker Soccer Complex. As part of the annual Greater Lafayette Recreational Soccer day at the field, a pregame tailgate is planned for 11 a.m. The Boilermaker Special and Purdue Pete will be making appearances and the Purdue players will be signing autographs after the game.

Purdue (5-2-1) is 4-1-1 at the Boilermaker Soccer Complex, scoring 21 of its 26 goals on its home pitch. The Badgers (5-1-1) are 4-0-1 on the road this season, highlighted by wins at Connecticut, Illinois State and Oregon. Wisconsin begins Big Ten play with three straight road games. But after playing eight of its first 10 games of 2013 away from Madison, UW has only two road dates on its regular-season schedule after Oct. 1.

Wisconsin was scheduled to host Green Bay at home Wednesday evening but the game was canceled due to gun shots near the Madison campus associated with a reported robbery.

Purdue (26) and Wisconsin (21) have both already reached the 20-goal benchmarks for the season after each has scored multiple goals in all but one game so far. The Boilermakers' 26 goals are a program high entering Big Ten play and only one short of last year's total. With five goals and eight assists, Hadley Stuart has impacted 13 of the 26 scores. She entered the week leading the nation in assists.

Purdue also began Big Ten play against the Badgers in 2001, 2007, 2009 and 2010 - posting a 2-0-2 record in the conference openers. But UW is riding a four-game unbeaten streak (2-0-2) vs. the Boilers dating back to 2009, its longest such streak in the series. In the first 14 meetings from 1999 through 2010, Purdue shut out Wisconsin eight times and surrendered only 11 goals. The Badgers have scored a combined nine times in their wins the last two years.

There were six goals scored in each of the last two Purdue-Wisconsin games. Jordan Pawlik and Kate Fowee found the back of the net for the Boilers last season. Purdue has already been involved in three games this season that featured seven-plus goals, all three seeing both teams score at least three times. Entering the season, there had only been three games in the first 15 years of the program where both teams had scored three or more times.

Wisconsin's lone loss of the season came in a seven-goal shootout. Vanderbilt scored the final two goals of a 4-3 final in Madison on Sept. 6.

The Last Meeting

Wisconsin

4

Purdue

2

October 19, 2012
West Lafayette, Ind.

Boilers Get Back in Scoring Column but Fall to Badgers, 4-2
In a game that featured six goals, Wisconsin's two scores in less than a minute late in the first half proved to be the difference in the Badgers' 4-2 victory against Purdue women's soccer Friday evening at the Boilermaker Soccer Complex.

Alex Hairston and Pawlik have been Purdue's goal scorers in Big Ten openers the last two years, respectively. Hairston enters Sunday's game having scored in three straight games, the first Boiler to do so since 2011. As a starter in all 47 games her first three seasons, the junior has managed to score in 14 of the 47 games (30 percent) in which she has played. Only Pawlik (8-of-25) has scored in a higher percentage (32) of games among active Boilermakers.

Wisconsin's Cara Walls enters the weekend ranked third in the Big Ten with seven goals, including four game-winners, and is likely to lead UW in scoring for the third year in a row. She scored twice against Purdue last season, opening and closing the scoring for the Badgers with goals in the 39th and 80th minutes. Wisconsin took control of the game with two goals in a span of 27 seconds in the 39th minute.

Kinley McNicoll (7 assists) and Rose Lavelle (6 assists) have each scored three times while teaming up to assist on 13 of their team's 21 goals. Goalkeeper Genevieve Richard is in her second season as the starter. Alev Kelter and Kylie Schwarz are UW's other players that have started each of the first seven games this year. Lexi Peterson and Nicole La Petina were high school teammates of Fowee's at Wheaton Warrenville South in suburban Chicago.

Purdue is scheduled to play road games at No. 9 Penn State (Sept. 26) and Ohio State (Sept. 29) next week. But from Oct. 4 through Oct. 27, the Boilers are scheduled to play five of their seven games at home.